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Possible Original Purpose of Long Shell Mill Arbor

Cannonmn

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Jun 25, 2016
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I put the chamfering head on it, not sure what shell mill was originally used with it. Even with the 4” shell, it seems you’d only want to use this arbor down inside a hole to get some lateral confinement in case it hung up somehow.

Anyone know of typical uses for very long shell mill arbors?
 
To reach down beside features. It will chatter and scream for its life long before it got "hung up"

I have some foot long cat40 holders I don't use often but I have used them. They are not as long as that beast but I'm sure it could come in handy for some kind of repair job.

After a second look that may not be much more than 12" gauge length
 
You won't bend that thing taking any depth of cut the cutter could handle - at least as long as you have it spinning. The clamp studs would be way more likely to shear first. And you sure as hell would be hearing it long before they let go.
 
That will really beat up the spindle bearings as well if you try and take much of a cut. Use it only for light cuts, like others said, it will chatter like hell otherwise.

Mr Bridgeport
 
''Anyone know of typical uses for very long shell mill arbors?''

When it's the only thing that will get you where you need to be.

&FWIW a positive rake cutter or HSS shell mill will cut a lot ''softer'' than the beast in the pics.
 
Cannonmn, that looks like a totally standard catalog item to me. So nobody is going to tell you the specific original purpose. The general purpose is extending a shell mill out from the spindle face, because the shape of the work calls for it. Think face milling bosses inside a gearbox half.
 
Bigger machines with 50 taper spindles also tend to not get very close to the top of table. I’d have to use a 6-8” arbor just to come close to facing a thin plate mounted direct to the table. I’d have to use a riser (bolster?) plate to raise the work if I wanted to use a standard arbor.
 
For stamping dies ,die cast dies, plastic injection molds, da reach. aint hard to drive em iffin ya been showed,or figgered it out on your own., I am guessin 9 axis machines have made then less popular?
usta be if you could drive them, you could win some races.
Good luck
Gw
 
4" dia shell mill roughing corn cob type with gage length 20 to 25" fairly common on horizontal mills.
obviously 40" pallet even with spindle sticking out 12" its still not easy to reach certain parts
.
its a reach or access thing, many times its just to remove stock for clearance, obviously cutting
parameters are reduced cause of length. HSS shell mill tend to break apart on overload
 
Might be common knowledge, but thought I would mention it here. It pays in spades to use a shorter one to rough as deep as possible before bringing out the big guns like that. At one job we had 3 different length arbors, 2" 4" and 6". Yes extra tool changes, inserts, shell mill bodies, but pays for itself when you can take 2-3x depth of cuts with the shorter ones before you need the reach of a long one.
 
usually its a reach thing. part shape and size forcing the long arbor. horizontal mill as pallet or table
gets bigger especially 40" or bigger has many tools with gage length of 20" or more
 
Might be common knowledge, but thought I would mention it here. It pays in spades to use a shorter one to rough as deep as possible before bringing out the big guns like that. At one job we had 3 different length arbors, 2" 4" and 6". Yes extra tool changes, inserts, shell mill bodies, but pays for itself when you can take 2-3x depth of cuts with the shorter ones before you need the reach of a long one.


Hey! I'm sure Tom was just ready to copy and paste that on his next reply.......:D

deflection is a bad thing, every time you have 3 times the stickout you get 3 x 3 x 3 = 27x less rigid and if you hit hard spots things really go south.......
 








 
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